![]() The author’s investigation into the dark roots of modern memory science ultimately forces him to confront unsettling secrets in his own family history, and to reveal the tragedy that fueled his grandfather’s relentless experimentation-experimentation that would revolutionize our understanding of ourselves.ĭittrich uses the case of Patient H.M. Dittrich’s grandfather was the brilliant, morally complex surgeon who operated on Molaison-and thousands of other patients. Patient H.M. is, at times, a deeply personal journey. Over the next sixty years, Patient H.M., as Henry was known, became the most studied individual in the history of neuroscience, a human guinea pig who would teach us much of what we know about memory today. The operation failed to eliminate Henry’s seizures, but it did have an unintended effect: Henry was left profoundly amnesic, unable to create long-term memories. ![]() ![]() Synopsis: In 1953, a twenty-seven-year-old factory worker named Henry Molaison-who suffered from severe epilepsy-received a radical new version of the then-common lobotomy, targeting the most mysterious structures in the brain. ![]() ![]() Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich ![]()
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